Grunge

Leslie and Leigh Keno

The Keno brothers (you know, the twin twits on The Antique Roadshow) have helped propagated the notion that grunge is good. If a beautiful Philidelphia Chippendale chair has been refinished or had its tattered seat cover replaced, it's value plummets by 90%. As long as there is no restoration on an antique of any type, according to these taste setters, it is far more valuable. Why? That's just the way it is ... because these guardians of public taste say so ... and the fact that collector lemmings follow such pronouncements at auctions and estate sales, reinforces such nonsense. Tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars ... or even millions of dollars of profit in the fine art world ... has a contra-logical way of influencing people's taste. Of couse, fifty years from now things could well be reversed. Following fads is a dangerous way of long-term investing.

Witness how expensive a Renoir or Andy Warhol paintings are today ...

(By the bye ... the same twisted logic can be applied to who or what wins awards ... like at the Oscars.)

Afterward: There is a certain irony in following the advice of these taste-arbiter twins ... by the name of Keno ... in that you are really taking a gamble.